CAMHS Self-Harm Teams and Crisis/Liaison Teams; What CAMH Nurses Bring to the Acute Moments in Young People’s Lives

Abstract

In this chapter, Marie Armstrong identifies skills which are particularly important for nurses dealing with self-harm, or at times of crisis. Although these acute moments are heavily laden with emotion, the nursing skills she suggests can be used to take the crisis point and turn it into a moment for therapeutic change. As well as establishing therapeutic relationships, the importance of ‘getting alongside’ children and young people at their lowest times is stressed, as well as making a working relationship with parents and carers. Highlighting the need for appropriate boundaries and retaining an analytic mind as to processes going on, she suggests that CAMHS nurses develop a position of being ‘professionally friendly’. Finally there is a look at some of the more practical skills, and some suggestions for how nurses can implement these suggestions into practice.